Tuesday, July 15, 2008

Was blessed and could bless


This often happens to me when I am roaming alone in a new city. The last time it happened was when I was roaming alone in the streets of Amsterdam as a tourist, taking photographs. It began with a feeling of complete well being, child like curiosity and joy as I walked around looking at the quaint shops and houses, which, coming from India, was very new and interesting for me. Slowly I was engulfed in complete stillness and peace, my mind was almost void of any thoughts, I wanted this mood to last forever, the feeling is indescribable, no where close to our everyday feeling of what we call ‘happiness’ or ‘joy’. But as soon as I realized that I had run out of film role, I was thrust back into everyday reality. It was almost like falling into a pit after having flown over mountains and valleys. Such moods come and go. Making the mundaness of everyday reality more and more unbearable and I am reminded of a poem by Yeats:
While on shop and street I gazed/ My body of a sudden blazed/ And twenty minutes more or less/ It seemed so great my happiness/ That I was blessed and could bless…

1 comment:

Ruth said...

I know the feeling you describe here very well - it often comes unbidden and unexpectedly, and it is connected with our deep spiritual self. I think Yeats captures it exquisitly - that poem is one of my all-time favourites.